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User blog:Mochizou/Summer
Welcome to Hartgarden High School, a large school situated in the suburbs of Ryden City, a large city where this story is set. Hartgarden High School is your avergae high school, teenagers come to school to learn, socialise, play sports and even...fall in love. '' 'Utopia.'episode 1.Summer'' This story starts in June, two months into the school year. Within the school, an open area called The Quad can be found. It's commonly used by Freshmen and Sophomores but there are two juniors who still find themselves coming here every lunchtime, after all, they have nowhere else to go. '' ''The first of these misfits is a 16 year old called Lizzy. You'll never find Lizzy in anything that's not sport attire, today she's sporting one of her many softball shirts complete with a cap to match. Lizzy is bold and brash, generally scary to many at the school and she doesn't shy away from a fight. Lizzy isn't afraid to stand up for what she believes in and this is the source of many of her conflcts. She does however, posses a generous heart and to those that truly know her, are able to see the very best of her, her selfless personality is reserved for those she can trust. She has been hurt many times along the way and is determined to live an easy life as she moves through her final two years at highschool On the other side of the bench that Lizzy is sitting on, sits a young looking 17 year old teenager. Kieran is sporting his usual attire of relaxed casual. Never to be found in anything but a hoody, he's wearing just that, even during the heat of the summer, although he has paired the hoody with shorts to avoid overheating. The hoody represents a security blanket for Kieran, to protect his very anxious personality. Kieran has been suffering from anxiety and depression related symptoms since he was 14 years old, though the anxiety has been present a lot longer and although he is now used to it, adolesence has made it hard to control. He's kind and generous but quiet outside of his comfort zone, around the ones he's feels safe with, he's a lot louder and excitable Kieran and Lizzy have been friends since their kindergarten days. Lizzy was in the process of smashing down another child's Lego creation when a young Kieran walked in the door, having recently moved into the area. Kieran would originally cry in front of her, not helped when she would hit him, but when he couldn't bring himself to leave her side and she realised she had someone she could abuse who also didn't run away, the two became close friends and still remain so to this day Kieran: 'It's so hot '''Lizzy: '''Take your fucking hoody off then ''Kieran is slouched over the bench, feeling sorry for himself. Lizzy is leaning backwards, desperately trying to get some air to beat the heat 'Kieran: '''You know I can't '''Lizzy: '''Right, right, the anxiety ''Kieran looks at Lizzy, who hasn't changed position, with an unimpressed face 'Kieran: '''I sometimes wonder how we've stayed friends this long and most importantly, why '''Lizzy: '''Because there is no one else who would be friends with you that's why ''Kieran looks resigned to his fate 'Kieran: '''True '''Lizzy: '''School is so boring, there are so many better things I could be doing with my life '''Kieran: '''Are you going to that anime thing after school '''Lizzy: '''There's an anime thing? Where? '''Kieran: '''In the city, the animanga store is having a big unveiling of a whole load of new titles and announcing lots of releases over the next year ''Kieran suddenly sits up straight, looking more animated 'Kieran: '''Not to mention all the figurines that are likely to be on sale today as they prepare for a new wave of them. There's the 2014 Sword Art Online version of Asuna in her Knights of the Blood Order outfit that has been looking at me for over 5 years now. Oh how I have waited to hold her in my arms, I was just a measly 12 year old preteen when I first laid eyes on her, not suitable for such a goddess like her, now I am a 17 year old man ''Lizzy laughs and Kieran pauses briefly to look at her with distaste 'Kieran: '''A 17 year old man who has grown now and is able to give her the love she truly deserves. '''Lizzy: '''So, you've been 17 for 2 months and she's been out for over 5 years, why are you only now about to buy her? ''Kieran pauses and looks slightly embarrassed 'Kieran: '''I...I can't afford to buy her at full price '''Lizzy: '''SLEAZE! '''Kieran: '''I CAN'T HELP IT! SHE'S SO PERFECT OF COURSE SHE'S GOING TO BE EXPENSIVE, I'D NEVER HAVE A CHANCE IF SHE WASN'T ON SALE ''The freshmen in The Quad are looking over at the double act in front of them, Lizzy and Kieran both unaware of the scene they are making as Kieran continues to profess his love for Asuna while Lizzy berates him for claiming to be worthy of her but still has to buy her at a discount. Their conversation comes to an abrubt end when Kieran see's something out of the corner of his eye 'Kieran: '''Woah....who's that? ''Just outside The Quad, gliding through the corridors is another junior, she moves with such grace that Kieran is completely startstruck by her. She's surrounded by fellow girls, clealy her inner circle, who smile with her, giggle when she laughs and basically follow her every wish and command. Lizzy turns her head round to see who Kieran is gawping at, she scoffs and turns back round 'Lizzy: '''Yazzy? You don't know who she is? '''Kieran: '''I don't really know the popular kids, they all look at me like I'm shit on their shoe '''Lizzy: '''She's the 'Queen Bee' of the school, she only transferred here at the start of the year but apparently she was something special at her last school. I don't see it personally, then again no one is a special as me. '''Kieran: '''You can say that again ''Lizzy kicks Kieran hard under the table. He jumps in pain, this was one of the reasons he didn't often wear shorts, he'd had multiple bruises off Lizzy in the past and now he would be adding another, visible one to the collection. When people saw his bruises they always assumed he was either sporty, which he no longer was after giving up soccer in middle school or just clumsy, which he was but not to that extreme 'Kieran: '''Ow that really hurt '''Lizzy: '''Well don't be fucking rude '''Kieran: '''Ok, sorry '''Lizzy: '''Please don't tell me you have the hots for Yazzy '''Kieran: '''What? N-n-n-n-n-n-n-No I d-d-d-d-don't ''Kieran is blushing 'Kieran: '''I-I've j-just never seen her b-before and was w-w-w-wondering who she was '''Lizzy: '''Christ get your words out '''Kieran: '''Shut up '''Lizzy: '''Don't make me kick you again '''Kieran: '''You know it was a lot quieter back in Brackheath ''Kieran hadn't always lived in the area. When he was 10 his parents were killed in a car accident and after the funeral, he had moved to live with his grandparents in the city of Brackheath, well over 1000 miles away. This was where Kieran had developed a keen interest in soccer and even joined the boy's soccer team in middle school. He was popular and happy there, a close circle of friends from the team and a generally good life. That's why Lizzy was surprised when her mum got a phone call from Kieran's grandma asking if Kieran could move in and return to the area. '' ''Kieran didn't return as the same person that left. He still interracted with Lizzy the same way he did as a child but his confidence was gone and he no longer had any desire to go out and socialise. Lizzy tried to get him to divulge the truth about his return but he refused to speak about it. All she was able to work out his return and him no longer playing soccer were related but since there no physical injury, she was left to permanently wonder. 'Lizzy: '''You chose to come back here, you wanted to leave that life behind, if it was so perfect you should have stayed ''Kieran looks down, clearly fighting bad memories 'Lizzy: '''Sorry, I shouldn't have said that '''Kieran: '''It's fine '''Lizzy: '''Look I've got to go to class, Tori said she'd reached a breakthrough on our computer project so I want to see what it is before I'm expected to answer questions about it '''Kieran: '''Sure thing ''Lizzy gathers all her books, her phone and her bag and makes her way for the door leading out of The Quad. As she approaches the door she turns towards her male friend still sitting at the bench looking even more forlorn 'Lizzy: '''You sure you're ok? ''Kieran turns his head and puts on a smile which Lizzy instantly knows is fake. His young looking face brightens with the smile, which is enough to decieve the untrained eye. His black, messy hair falling down around his eyes which instantly reminds Lizzy of Kirito from Sword Art Online, not that she would tell Kieran this, she wasn't giving him a complex 'Kieran: '''Yeah, I'm good ''Not wanting to push him if he wasn't ready to open up, Lizzy turns back and carries on towards class. Kieran remains in his seat, watching the clock ticking and thinking back to a time when he wasn't a socially awkward outcast. He wasn't resentful of this, he was more than grateful to still have a friend like Lizzy in his life, he was upset at the process that had put him in this position from the one he was in during his middle school days but he was still determined to stop these feelings from interfering with his life. He would suppress them if he had too Lizzy's home 'Tori: '''So if we just reprogramme the software, we should have it running perfectly in no time '''Lizzy: '''You know I can't reprogramme shit '''Tori: '''It's really not that difficult if you think about it, you just have to open up the app's programme files and rewrite them with the relevent information. A bit like rewriting the html on your tumblr theme '''Lizzy: '''Yeahhhh....I always copied and pasted themes ''Tori looks incredibly unimpressed 'Tori: '''Just follow my lead ''Lizzy and Tori had been friends since middle school, both being in the same class in their first year and every subsequent year since. They weren't close in the sense that Lizzy and Kieran were but since working together on a joint project in their second year of middle school, they had both realised that they made a good team and now whenever homework required joint participation, you could be guranteed these two would be paired up. Lizzy was forever inviting Tori to join her and 'the boy' for lunch and even on weekend outings but Tori rarely joined them, in her own words, she was a "loner" but looking at Tori right now, you would think she was anything but 'Tori: '''There we go, look at that! It's actually working ''Tori throws her hands up in the air in celebration as Lizzy comes over to look 'Lizzy: '''How the hell did you do that '''Tori: '''Simple really, just had to- '''Lizzy: '''Is it really? Really? '''Tori: '''Maybe not for you apparently '''Lizzy: '''If you were Kieran, I would have hit you by now ''Tori smirks 'Tori: '''I know '''Lizzy: '''Do you want a drink? '''Tori: '''Sure yeah ''Lizzy gets up and heads over to the kitchen, she opens the fridge and pulls out two sodas. '' '''Lizzy: '''Since it's so hot, I'm gonna put them in glasses with ice ''From the kitchen, Lizzy can see Tori stick her hand in the air and give a thumbs up from the lounge 'Tori: '''Sounds good. Oh by the way, did you hear about Yazzy? ''Lizzy pulls the glasses out of the cupboard 'Lizzy: '''What about her? ''Lizzy places the glasses on the counter but suddenly freezes. That can't be right she thinks to herself. Did she really just see that? As the glass touched the counter she could have sworn she saw it glitch in some way, but that was impossible, she couldn't possibly have just witnessed that 'Tori: '''Lizzy? Lizzy? ''Tori keeps calling her, sounding more and more concerned each time 'Lizzy: '''Yeah, sorry, just started daydreaming '''Tori: '''You ok? '''Lizzy: '''Yeah...I could have just sworn that I saw these glasses glitch '''Tori: '''Like a computer game? '''Lizzy: '''Mhmm ''Tori looks concerned before laughing 'Tori: '''You've probably got programming on the brain ''Lizzy starts laughing 'Lizzy: '''Yeah probably ''Rygen City Animanga Store 'Kieran: '''Should just be right down here ''Kieran turns the corner inside the store, heading down towards the figurines. The animanga store was huge, containing just about everthing and it was a good thing as there was no other store for miles. That was why it was so important that Kieran find his Asuna figurine, there would be no other chance, and he was not going to look for her on the internet, there was some funny kinds of people there 'Kieran: '''There she is! ''Kieran sees her at the end of the aisle, light emitting from around the plastic packaging like an angel from heaven. Kieran can feel himself gravitating towards her, his arms slowly reaching out, desperate to hold such a beautiful character. As he places his fingers around the box and pulls it towards him, he's shocked when he encounters resistance 'Kieran: '''Eh? ''Kieran gives the box a hard pull, stronger than he thought he was capable of, possibly helped due to his determination and as he looked he saw on the other end of the box, another set of fingers, these fingers attached to a person wearing what he instantly recognised as an outfit he had seen only that day. He followed the outfit upwards until he came up to the face of the resistance, his 'love rival', only it wasn't 'Yazzy: '''Excuse me ''Kieran looks shell shocked. The pair of delicate hands on the other end of the box containing Asuna belonged to no other than one of the most popular girls in school, Yazzy. Kieran stares at her for a good 10 seconds, as the deepest red blush rises up over his face. On the other side, Yazzy has also begin to show shades of pink in her cheeks, as the realisation hits her that the person after her favourite anime character is a near nobody at her school and that intentionally or not, he has the ability to tear down her whole reputation. 'Kieran: '''Y-y-y-y-y-you're from my school! '''Yazzy: '''Shuushhh! Not so loud! '''Kieran: '''Why are you here?! '''Yazzy: '''I thought that was obvious? '''Kieran: '''B-B-B-B-BUT YOU'RE ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR GIRLS IN SCHOOL! '''Yazzy: '''Be quiet please! ''Kieran doesn't know what's affecting him more, the fact that he's talking to a very cute girl who just happens to be after the same character as him, the character in question being the love of his life. If it's the fact that ''his anime girlfriend is under threat or that this cute girl standing in front of him was a very popular girl at his high school where he was practically nobody. All he knew was that he was struggling to control himself, he was shaking with nerves, anxious all over and now blushing harder than ever before. Even lobsters weren't as red as he was right now'' 'Yazzy: '''Can we please just forget this happened? Just pretend like I was never here. God, I knew this was a mistake coming here. Please let's forget this '''Kieran: '''Sure t-t-th-th-thing ''Both stand there, not moving, although it's clear that they want to, Kieran can't make eye contact with Yazzy and Yazzy is desperately trying to put an end to this embarrassing run in. There's just one problem 'Kieran: '''U-u-um, the thing is, I-I-I-I-I came here for Asuna and I've b-b-been waiting for a long time now. ''There's a change in Kieran's tone, suddenly as he talks about Asuna, his confidence and passion returns 'Kieran: '''I've spent a long tme coming in here and marvelling at her honest and strong heart. Thinking for a long time how weak I was compared to her but that was ok because I'd forgotten how comfortable it was to depend on someone. I've tried to save and then have to spend those savings to cover some cost. I have loved from afar and never been so passionate about one person. I've scraped all I have to make sure I could afford her at this price and now I'm ready to take her home and take responsibility for her so please! Let me take responsibility and take her home Yazzy! ''Yazzy's eyes widen and she looks on in amazement, speechless 'Yazzy: '''Jeez ''Before either party can back down, there's a strange glitch that starts affecting the items in the shop before the two are enveloped in a white light and the only thing that remains is the Asuna figurine which drops to the floor Kieran lands with an almighty thud, he feels his head to see that he's bleeding. He doesn't have time to worry about that right now, the most important question on his mind was, where was he? He stood up and looked around, this wasn't the animanga store and this certainly wasn't Rygen City but there was a certain familiarness about this place that he recognised. He couldn't put his finger on it though, just where did he recognise this place from. '' ''Kieran looks around for Yazzy, she was just with him she can't be far away. He looks across the courtyard but it's not Yazzy he sees. 'Kieran: '''Lizzy?! ''He runs over to her, she's still sitting on the floor, possibly in shock 'Lizzy: '''Kieran? Hey, you're bleeding '''Kieran: '''It's fine, don't worry about it. What are you doing here? What's going on? '''Lizzy: '''I don't know....we were just working on a computer project and then everything glitched and I was here.....TORI? ''Lizzy looks around depserately but can't see her anywhere 'Lizzy: '''She was just with me '''Kieran: '''I've lost Yazzy, we were standing next to each other when this happened and I don't know where she is '''Lizzy: '''Yazzy? What were you doing with her? '''Kieran: '''That's not important right now! '''Lizzy: '''Hehehehehe '''Voice: '''Welcome ''The loud booming voice stuns everyone into silence. They all turn to see a mysterious and shadowy figure appear in the centre of the courtyard. The sky turns red with what Kieran can only think look like a system error message but he dismisses it as an implausability. As everyone stands, he spots Yazzy across the courtyard who spots him and gradually makes her way to him just as the voice begins to speak 'Voice: '''For the last 5 years, I have been developing a game that would create a whole new user experience, something completely different and took inspiration from many different ideas, particularly from Japanese entertainment and I have made this new arena. ''Kieran felt sick 'Voice: '''This is Utopia, that's the name of this place not it's designation as you will learn, it's anything but. There are 100 floors of excitement ahead of you, just like the Aincrad experience that some of you may be familiar with ''Now Kieran really did feel sick. He loved Sword Art Online and used to wish he could be trapped in a world similar to Aincrad, suddenly reality didn't seem as exciting and what was worse was that the voice wasn't finished 'Voice: '''You're all probably wondering how you're here? Well at some point in the last week, you have registered interest in the game Retopia and have signed up for information on it's future release. Well that was all I needed to find you and I have been able to collect your data and you specifically. Let me make it clear now, you are trapped in here ''There are cries from the audience. Kieran can feel the blood of his injury trickling down his forehead but he doesn't care. He's also feeling warmth in his hand and he turns to see that Yazzy has clenched his hand tight as tears form in the corner of her eyes 'Voice: '''Like Aincrad, you are all trapped and all of you look like your regular selves. Obviously none of you are hooked up to a virtual reality device and that's the fun part! If you die here, then you die in real life becuase I have phsycially stolen your body, it exists here and only here. When you die, no one in the world will know when it actually was! You'll be missing and they'll suffer for so long. Isn't it amazing ''Kieran clenches his fist with his free hand. This guy is worse than Aincrad, he's a complete psychopath, creating this world purely for the sake of cruelty and conviction. This was going to be a hard pill to swallow 'Voice: '''You are all currently on the first floor of this world. The Stater Town. As with every floor, the main town or area will be safe from danger and death but to grow and succeed and beat this world you will have to venture out into the wild. Good luck, the game begins......now ''The shadowy figure disappears and the world returns to normal. As things settle, people begin to come round. Some run, some scream, some fight, some remain in shock. Lizzy walks to find Tori and Yazzy signals to Kieran that she's going to explore the town. Kieran remains in the courtyard to take stock, he's not going to be defeated by this game, it wasn't happening. He runs straight out of town and begins to take this world on...... Category:Blog posts